The present invention relates to manual tools for scale wooden models of cars and has particular utility in connection with installing axles parallel to the bottom of a wooden model car body and wheels at a predetermined distance from a wooden model car body.
As winter loosens its grip, Cub Scouts emerge from dens across the land for a contest: the PINEWOOD DERBY® wooden model car race. For the PINEWOOD DERBY® race, Cub Scouts and their adult sponsors assemble a wooden car from a kit in the days and weeks before a race and then race their cars against those of fellow Cub Scouts upon a track with guideways for each car. Cub Scouts that win local races advance to tournaments at higher and higher levels. In a car race, speed remains essential to victory and thousandths of a second count dearly to Cub Scouts and their sponsors. So, Cub Scouts and sponsors seek to minimize wheel friction and to align wheels precisely. The wooden cars have four polymer, or plastic, wheels. Each plastic wheel has a finished face, a rim, and a centered hub opposite the finished face. The hub fits over an axle hammered into the car. Spinning upon the axle, the hub contacts the car while the rim rolls upon the track.
Unique aspects of the present invention are positioning an axle horizontally and positioning an axle a predetermined distance beneath a car body while the axle rests in a kerf in the car body and at the same time spacing a wheel outwardly from the car body a second predetermined distance. The two distances meet the regulations of the race while positioning an axle and a wheel precisely to reduce friction caused by misalignment of wheels to the racetrack. The present invention is used for each axle of the vehicle so that all of them have locations the same distance from the car body. Prior art designs positioned axles and wheels by visual and tactile observation alone. Cub Scouts and their sponsors place the wheel upon an axle and then press the axle into the kerf. The vagaries of the wood from the kerf often placed axles, and thus wheels, out of position and alignment resulting in skewed placement upon the racetrack and a loss of speed.
The present invention overcomes the limitations of the prior art. The difficulty in positioning axles and wheels in relation to a car body by Cub Scouts with minimal skill is shown by the operation of the typical method. From the factory and handling, car bodies have a generally rectangular cross section with a bottom face having two saw cuts, or kerfs, across the bottom face. The kerfs receive a regulation axle. However, a kerf has the wood remnants from the saw. The remnants include blade tip marks, chad, dust, and stray shavings of wood, or fuzz. A Cub Scout puts the pointed tip of the axle through the hub of the wheel until the head of the axle abuts the surface of the finished wheel face. The Cub Scout then places the axle upon the kerf and the wheel just outside the car body. The Cub Scout then uses his thumbs and fingers to press the axle into the kerf and the hub of the wheel abuts the car body. However, an axle advances only so far into a kerf using finger pressure. A Cub Scout or sponsor may further insert the axle using a thin tool such as a screwdriver. Applying pressure to just a portion of the axle, the axle often skews and one end moves more into the kerf than the other. A skewed axle then shifts the angle of the rim to the track and may also cause the wheel to rub against the car body. These results from a skewed axle cause partial contact of the wheel with the track and the guideway, increasing friction, altering the path of car travel, and reducing the speed of the car. The present invention overcomes these difficulties.
That is, the art of the present invention allows Cub Scouts and sponsors to push the entire length of an axle at one time into the kerf while spacing a wheel a certain distance from the car body. The axle guide has the desirable function of positioning a wheel hub at a known distance from the car body and parallel to the track thus reducing friction between a wheel and a car body and the wheel and the track. The axle guide also provides for a more precise and square orientation of a rim to the track.